True or False? The Palestinians are a culture dating back to ancient times. They are indigenous to the land and this land was conquered and taken away from them by the Israelis.

Answer: False! The Jews have lived there since ancient times.

Traveling to the Promised Land after escaping the bondage of Egypt, the Hebrews, under Joshua, did wage war against the former inhabitants known as the Canaanite nations. These horribly evil countries were actually killing their own babies by offering them on the altar to heathen gods. This was the chief reason why the Hebrews captured Canaan. They did so in obedience to God, who wanted to judge the tyrannies. You may not believe that. Frankly, (with all due respect) for this current discussion, it doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. All you need to understand are two very important, undeniable facts.

1) This command is recorded in the Bible. Even if you do not accept the Bible as the word of God, the Koran (interestingly enough) does accept the Bible as the word of God. The Koran does not claim to be an alternative to the Bible, rather a sequel to the Bible. This means the Palestinian Muslims must accept the Bible’s record as trustworthy and this means (even more obviously) the Palestinian Christians must accept the Bible’s record as trustworthy.

2) These Canaanite nations are now completely extinct. No, the Jews did not commit genocide and annihilate them, as is commonly charged (1Chron 8) but the Canaanite nations were certainly displaced and in the passage of time, (characterized by mixed marriages with other nations) there simply were no more Canaanite nations to speak of. This means that even if one wanted to make a case that the fate of the Canaanites was unjust, (weak as such a case would be) there are no more Canaanites to return to the land anyway.

At first, Israel lived under the rule of various judges. In time they had their own kings, just as their neighbor nations did. King David ruled Israel approximately, 1000 B.C. David’s existence is corroborated by archaeological evidence, two pieces of basalt with the phrase, “House of David in one section and “King of Israel” in another. ¹ A stele from ancient Egypt also provides much earlier corroboration for Israel’s existance as a nation during the time of King Mernapoth, the Pharaoh who succeeded Ramsees II.² (You know.  That guy who messed up and saw his men clobbered at the Red Sea?  OK. “Sea of Reeds” for those of you just waiting to jump on me over accuracy.)

During the reign of David’s grandson, Reheboam, a civil war broke out in Israel and this one country split into two countries; the nation of Israel in the North and the nation of Judah, in the South, named for the tribe of Judah, one of Israel’s 12 sons. The tribe of Benjamin united with Judah, which means that the nation of Judah included the Benjamanites. It also included the Levites, who being priests, had no land of their own and were allowed to live in both the Northern and Southern kingdoms.

After a repetitious history of apostasy and idol worship, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by King Sargon and the Assyrians. The Assyrians had an interesting way of keeping their conquered territories in check. They did it by shuffling the nations. I.E, most of the Israelites were shipped off to other conquered territories and captives from a multitude of alien nations were in turn, transplanted into conquered Israel. The few Israelites remaining in the land married these new people. This was the origin of the Samaritans (named for Samaria,the former, capital city of the Northern Kingdom). But the remaining Israelites intermarried in far off lands, losing (with few exceptions) their identity, thus the phrase, “Lost Tribes of Israel.”

The history was very different with the remaining Southern Kingdom, the nation of Judah. They too were conquered a number of years later by the Babylonians. Unlike the Assyrians, the Babylonians brought the entire people to Babylon intact. The Jews (a slang term taken from the word, Judah) lived in Babylon for 70 years. In time, the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians.  This means that the Jews, while still living in Babylon during the changing of the guard, found themselves under Persian authority.

The conquering of Judah by Babylon is corroborated by Persian history and Babylonian history.  Likewise, Assyrian history records their invasion.³

In 444 B.C. King Artexerxes of Persia did something unprecedented. He allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their city. An earlier king (Darius) had already allowed the rebuilding of the temple. This Second Exodus into the Promised Land formed the second Israel, (sometimes called, “The Second Commonwealth”) but for most of this time, the Jews lived in subjection to a series of consecutive superpowers, first the Persians,  and eventually the Syrians (not to be confused for the Assyrians). After a brief period of revolution and independence under the Maccabees (from which the holiday of Hanukah originates) the Jews were again conquered, this time by General Pompey who represented, that modest, humble, little country called Rome. The Jews were still living under the Romans at the time of Christ who was crucified in 33A.D. by the Roman Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate.

VERY IMPORTANT: We have telescoped a great deal of history, close to two thousand years worth. At no time, was there a people in the land called Palestinians.  Where did such a name and people come from?

To be continued in tomorrow’s blog.

The Truth About Israel and Palestine: Part Four

 Footnotes:

1) Time Magazine, Dec 18, 1995

2) US News and World Report Vol. 118 Nov 21 Jeffery L Sheler

3) The Bible and Archaeology: The Downfall of Judah: Exile To Babylon By Mario Seiglie,

Truth.net, Apologetics: Who is God?

Historical Evidence For the Accuracy of the Bible, By Dennis Crawford

New York Times, Friday, Feb 22, 2008

Bibliography

1) From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters

2) The Complete Idiot’s Guide To Middle East

Conflict by Mitchell G. Bard, Ph.D

3) Philistine, by Ramon Bennett.

Also From Bob Siegel

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